15 JULY 1949, Page 15

SIR,—Mr. Nicolson may be right in saying that few people

today can speak Latin as a living language. Old Persc boys of Dr. Rouse's time can do it well, and some of their pupils too. But their accent by no means renders their words incomprehensible to Continental scholars, and no doubt any competent scholar can be intelligible abroad, unless it be to some non- ecclesiastical Frenchman who nasalises as in his mother tongue. I have talked Latin without difficulty to monks and priests in Rome and Syracuse, and heard other English people do the same. It is difficult no doubt for those who can only use English vowel sounds ; but they ought to know

better.—Yours faithfully, F. DALE. City of London School, Victoria Embankment, E.C4.